As of Jan. 1, 2024, employers performing asbestos abatement work must be licensed to operate in B.C. and anyone performing this work must be trained and certified.These new requirements were part of amendments to the Workers Compensation Act made in spring 2022.The legislative amendments also gave WorkSafeBC the authority to develop and administer the licensing and certification regime. In addition to being required to have a licence requirement, asbestos abatement employers will need to ensure their workers are appropriately trained and certified by Jan. 1, 2024.Any individual performing asbe

Health Canada has authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's updated COVID-19 vaccine for people six months and older.The mRNA vaccine targets the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant that is circulating in Canada.This is the second vaccine targeting XBB.1.5 that will be available in this country.Earlier this month, Health Canada authorized Moderna's updated mRNA vaccine.Both Pfizer and Moderna's shots are one-dose vaccines for people five years of age and older.Three shots of the Pfizer vaccine is recommended for children between six months and four years of age who have not received their primary series of a COVID-

The federal government is coping with apparent cyberattacks this week, as a hacker group in India claims it has sowed chaos in Ottawa.The Canadian Armed Forces says that its website became unavailable to mobile users midday Wednesday, but was fixed within a few hours.The military says the site is separate from other government sites, such as the one used by the Department of Defence, and the incident remains under investigation.Various pages on the House of Commons website are continuing to load slowly or incompletely due to an ongoing attack that officials say started Monday morning.The Commo

The University of Alberta is returning endowment funds from the family of a Ukrainian man whose military service was linked to the Nazis.Since 2019, the university's Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies has had a $30,000 endowment carrying the name Yaroslav Hunka.Hunka was introduced in the House of Commons last week during a visit from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.It was later revealed that Hunka had fought in a Ukrainian unit set up by Nazi Germany to fight the Soviet Union.The revelation forced the resignation of Anthony Rota as House Speaker and an apology on behalf of Parlia

Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has been arrested in a case related to the NDPS Act.Khaira has been sent to police custody for two days.Although the police had asked for a seven-day remand, the court has allowed two days.The MLA's son had gone live on Facebook to show that the Punjab Police team had reached his house to arrest Khaira.In this video, Khaira can be seen arguing with the police team.Punjab Police arrested Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Thursday morning in the 2015 drug case.A team of Punjab Police under the leadership of Superintendent of Police Manjit Singh raided Khaira'

A $7 billion EV battery plant is going to be built in Quebec.Sweden's giant battery company Northvolt is installing this plant.This was announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier François Legault on Thursday in Montreal.The first phase of the $7 billion investment plant will have an annual battery cell manufacturing capacity of up to 30 GWh.The company says the plant is expected to employ 3,000 people.Quebec and the federal government will invest a total of $2.7 billion to build the plant.The plant is expected to be ready by the end of 2026.Premier François Legault hailed

Quebec's police watchdog is investigating after a member of a provincial police tactical team shot a man suspected of making threats toward Premier François Legault and Prime Minster Justin Trudeau.The agency, known as the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, says the shooting occurred during an attempted arrest early Wednesday morning at a home in Scotstown, Que., about 180 kilometres east of Montreal.According to the BEI, an officer who was looking through a window shot the suspect when he saw him point a gun toward the door where officers were entering.It says the man was wounded and is in

The B.C. gurdwara where a Sikh separatist leader was gunned down has launched an investigation into how an American newspaper was able to view security camera footage of the June killing.Gurkeerat Singh, who said he is a spokesman for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, said it's unclear how The Washington Post was able to see the video of Hardeep Singh Nijjar's death."We've been told by the temple that the video is not for the media, the public, because it's an ongoing investigation. That video won't be released to anyone."It's an "ongoing investigation," he said in an interview on Wednes

Forest products firm Canfor says hired contractors on their way to conduct field survey work for the company were on board a helicopter that crashed outside Prince George, B.C., killing two and injuring four.Emergency crews were called just before 8 a.m. Tuesday after the helicopter crashed near Purden Lake off Highway 16, with six people on board.Canfor says in a statement issued Wednesday that the survey crew, the helicopter and its pilot were contracted for field work, but the company would not reveal the contracting firm nor the helicopter's owner.Michelle Ward, Canfor's vice-president of